![]() Imagine if cinematographer Seamus McGarvey filmed five uninterrupted minutes of carefully choreographed action, just for half of it all to get lost in blurriness and hard to decipher by viewers. It's a touching scene, full of humanity and emotion, but probably wouldn't have worked if a shallow depth-of-field was used. Some play football, some get drunk, some sing together at the bandstand. ![]() The whole point of this scene is to show how different men spent their last days on the beaches of Dunkirk. Not only is this stately shot done all in one go-without edits-it also makes full use of deep focus. We've highlighted the war drama Atonement before for its incredible use of the long take technique, but there's more to the film's greatness than its sheer length of a single take. Related: The 10 Best Modern Black-and-White Movies (From 2000 and Later)įacebook Twitter Reddit Messenger WhatsApp Copy Link 3. So when we see Gary Oldman pacing the grand, tall buildings (reminiscent of Citizen Kane's set design), he remains completely visible and in sharp focus, as if it were Welles himself. Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt evoked the aesthetics of Citizen Kane in every way possible, including deep focus. This doesn't just mean black-and-white film grain. ![]() Mankiewicz-the man who actually wrote Citizen Kane-Fincher mimics the style of Welles' famous cinematography. Telling the lesser-known story of Herman J. In ode too Orson Welles, director David Fincher leaned heavily on deep focus in his Oscar-winning historical drama Mank. By keeping them in sight, your attention isn't drawn away from the character (which may be hinting to an important plot point). It sounds simple and possibly even trivial, but most movies have characters fade into a blur for a more "cinematic" look. When a character walks toward the back of a set-or even leaves the room altogether-see how they remain in constant focus. The next time you watch one, take note of how crisp the details are of everything in the shot. He used it in pretty much all of his movies. It wasn't just in Citizen Kane that Welles used deep focus. This use of deep focus is particularly clever as it links the core question of the movie and the ending of the film: Who/what is Rosebud? Thanks to cinematographer Gregg Toland's employment of deep focus, we aren't just seeing what's happening inside the room-everything outside of the room is clearly visible, too. In this scene, young Charles can be seen playing in the snow through the window, way back in the background. One quick Google search reveals a ton of YouTube essays and scholarly articles about the flashback scene to Charles Foster Kane's childhood. Citizen Kane (1941)Ĭitizen Kane is Welles' most famous film-and by extension, his most famous use of the deep focus shot. Here are several excellent movies that have used the deep focus shot technique to great effect. Or it could just be used to show off the cool set design. We're forced to take in the background action as much as the foreground, which can imply a link between action, character, and setting. When a scene is filmed in deep focus, viewers are given the maximum amount of information from the scene. Related: 22 Famous Movie Directors and Their Cinematic Styles, Explained What Is Deep Focus? Explainedĭeep focus sits at one end of the depth-of-field spectrum, and it means that everything in the shot-foreground and background-is sharply focused and visible.ĭirector Orson Welles was a particular fan of this technique, and he popularized the deep focus technique in his 1941 film buff classic Citizen Kane (which we'll explore some more later in this article). But what exactly is a deep focus shot? And what does it do for the scene? In other shots, the background and/or foreground is blurry and only the subject is sharp.Īll of this leads to the concept of a deep focus shot, and filmmakers may elect to use this kind of shot to enhance their films. In other words, what parts are in focus and what parts are blurred. Very important in certain scenes.ĭepth-of-field refers to the front-to-back range of each frame's focus. The depth-of-field of each shot also requires careful consideration, as it helps direct the viewer's attention and is one way to guide where their eyes land in any particular shot. ![]() Filmmakers and cinematographers have to consider everything on screen, from lighting to color grading. There are so many elements that go into making a film that you might not even notice half of them.
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